Sailor Mercury
Sailor Mercury was one of Princess Serenity's guardians, and was the first Sailor Senshi to join Sailor Moon in her fight. Her current incarnation was Ami Mizuno, and her powers were derived from water. Her sharp mind and analytical abilities made her the strategist of the Inner Senshi. Anime In the anime, the Sailor Mercury who lived during the time of the Silver Millennium was responsible for protecting Princess Serenity along with Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus. All four guardians were killed by Queen Metalia during the Dark Kingdom's surprise attack on the Moon. Queen Serenity then sent the fallen Senshi into the future to be reincarnated. Sailor Mercury was reincarnated on Earth as Ami Mizuno. Although her Senshi powers were not supposed to have been reactivated, this became necessary after the Dark Kingdom were found to have been reincarnated as well. Sailor Mercury was the third of the Sailor Team to awaken, and the second to be awakened by Luna. Eventually, the Dark Kingdom's base was located at D Point. By now, the Sailor Team had recovered their memories of their past lives, and were determined to prevent a repeat of Metalia's devastating attack. However, they were confronted outside the base by the DD Girls, five extremely powerful Youma who proceeded to decimate the Sailor Team. Sailor Mercury was killed by three of the DD Girls, although she succeeded in depriving their leader of her ability to create illusions. Only Sailor Moon survived the battle, but the spirits of Sailor Mercury and the others joined her as she battled Super Beryl. As Metalia was finally destroyed, Sailor Moon wished for herself and her friends to be returned to their old lives. The Silver Crystal acted upon this wish, resurrecting the Sailor Team and Mamoru, and returning them to Azabu-Juuban with no memories of their lives as Sailor Senshi. Only Luna and Artemis retained memories of what had transpired. The peace did not last long, however, and Luna and Artemis were soon forced to reawaken the Sailor Team due to the activities of Ail and An. Sailor Mercury and the others had their memories restored and regained their powers. When Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon were trapped by Fisheye during the battle with the Dead Moon, Pegasus granted extra power to the Sailor Team, allowing them to achieve their "Super" forms. Sailor Mercury's Star Power Stick became a Crystal Change Rod, which allowed her to transform from Ami Mizuno directly into Super Sailor Mercury. Sailor Mercury, along with the rest of the Sailor Team, had her Star Seed removed during the face off with Sailor Galaxia, causing her to lose her physical form and effectively rendering her dead. Fortunately, her Star Seed was released after Chaos was expelled from Galaxia, and Sailor Mercury was brought back to life. Powers Transformations *Mercury Power, Make Up - Used her first transformation pen to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Mercury Star Power, Make Up - Used her Star Power Stick to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up - Used her Crystal Change Rod to transform into Super Sailor Mercury. Attacks *Sabão Spray - Sailor Mercury's first technique produced a thick fog that obscured the area, but in which the Senshi could see clearly. It was a support ability, incapable of directly harming enemies. *Sabão Spray Freezing - A more powerful form of Sabão Spray that could actually harm, or at least immobilize, enemies. First appeared in the R season. *Double Sabão Spray Freezing - An enhanced form of Sabão Spray Freezing, used on one occasion against Giwaku. *Shine Aqua Illusion - Mercury's first purely offensive ability that first appeared in the R season. She fired a water blast that could destroy or freeze its target. *Mercury Aqua Rhapsody - Mercury's most powerful attack; she materialized and played a watery lyre, firing a water blast at the enemy. She received this ability in the SuperS season. *Mercury Aqua Mirage - An attack which appeared only in the manga and in the Ami's First Love special; it engulfed the target in a globe of water which then burst, leaving the target destroyed. Items Besides her communicator and transformation pens, Sailor Mercury had a hand-held computer which she could use as a scanner and data analyzer, as well as for accessing other computer systems. When she pressed her right ear stud, a blue visor materialized over her eyes, allowing her to scan objects or enemies for detailed information, such as weak points. Costume Sailor Mercury Sailor Mercury (Classic, R, S) had a fuku similar to Sailor Moon's. Her dominant color was blue (tiara gem, earrings, choker, collar, center of front bow, elbow fittings of gloves, skirt, and boots) and her accent color was light blue (bows). Her earrings were small blue studs (which she could press to turn on her special visor), her collar had two white stripes, and her boots were the same knee-high style as Sailor Moon's, but in a blue color and without a symbol attached to them. Super Sailor Mercury After the "Super" upgrade (SuperS, Stars), her earrings were three blue studs, her choker had a yellow star attached to it, her collar had one white stripe, the center of her front bow was a heart, the bottom of the shoulder pads was translucent, and the back waist bow was enlarged and lengthened. Manga Powers Transformations *Mercury Power, Make Up - Used her first transformation pen to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Mercury Star Power, Make Up - Used her Star Power Stick to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Mercury Planet Power, Make Up - Used the planet powers granted to her by Neo-Queen Serenity to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up - Used her Mercury Crystal to transform into Super Sailor Mercury. Attacks *Mercury Aqua Mist - An attack given in the reprints of the manga to create a fog, similar to Sabão Spray in the anime. *Hyperspace Area Formation - A mysterious ability used only once in the manga to protect the Game Center Crown from destruction. *Shine Aqua Illusion - An attack that would blast away enemies with a stream of water. *Shine Snow Illusion - Created a snow storm to blast enemies. *Mercury Aqua Mirage - An attack which only appeared in the manga and the Ami's First Love special episode in the anime. *Mercury Aqua Rhapsody - Sailor Mercury played the Mercury Harp to send blasts of water at her enemies. She gained this power after transforming with the Mercury Crystal. Costume Sailor Mercury Sailor Mercury's first costume in the manga was mostly identical to the anime version, the only differences being that her collar had three stripes, she had no shoulder pads, and her earrings were always three blue studs. Super Sailor Mercury Her brooch changed from a circle to a heart after Sailor Moon first transformed into Super Sailor Moon. After the "Super" upgrade, her costume was almost completely identical to the anime version, but the star on her choker had a blue gemstone in the center. Sailor StarMercury After the last upgrade in the Stars arc, her choker was V-shaped and the center of her front bow was a blue five-pointed star. Her shoulder pads were large light blue puffs with two patches of blue fabric attached to the bottom. Her gloves became longer, reaching to her upper arms. In artbook illustrations, she had blue V-shaped wristbands with golden five-pointed stars on them, but they were not present in the manga. Her belt consisted of two blue ribbons, a blue one and a light blue one, with two long, thin back ribbons, clipped together by a golden five-pointed star. Her back bow was light blue. Her skirt became two-layered, the top layer being blue and the bottom light blue. Her boots were knee-length and white, and each had a blue V-shaped border with a five-pointed star at the top. Her tiara gem was a blue five-pointed star and her earrings were blue, dangling five-pointed stars. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon In the live-action series, Sailor Mercury had the ability to create a sword from standing water to protect herself, an ability which never appeared in the anime or manga. After she awakened her Senshi power in Act 29 she gained the ability to generate a stream of bubbles, and she used this power twice in the series. She was also able to turn her Sailor Star Tambourine into a different sword in order to fight the Youma created by Princess Sailor Moon in the Final Act. This same sword also appeared in the Special Act, only that time it was to protect Sailor Moon. Powers Transformations *Mercury Power, Make Up - Used to transform into Sailor Mercury. *Dark Power, Make Up - Used to transform into Dark Mercury. Attacks *Mercury Aqua Mist - Sailor Mercury's first attack, which sent a spray of water at her target. *Shine Aqua Illusion - An attack similar to the same attack in the anime and manga. *Mercury Aqua Blizzard - An attack which sent a torrent of snow at her target, encasing it in ice. *Mercury Aqua Cyclone - An attack which only appeared once in the live-action series; it sent a powerful stream of water at the target. *Mercury Aqua Storm - Sailor Mercury's special attack using her Sailor Star Tambourine. *Unnamed attack - Sailor Mercury used an attack which was not named on screen, in which she used her Sailor Star Tambourine to send blue star-shaped energy toward her target. Costume Sailor Mercury's costume in PGSM was identical to the manga version, except that all dark blue portions of her costume (choker, collar, elbow fittings, skirt, and boots) were changed to sky blue. Dark Mercury In Act 21 of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Mercury was captured by Kunzite and turned to the forces of evil using Queen Metalia's power, by preying on her feelings of loneliness among the Senshi. Despite being "made" by Kunzite, Dark Mercury (also called "Darkury" (ダーキュリー) by the production staff and fans) never accepted him nor any other Dark Kingdom member as her superior. Musicals In the musicals, Sailor Mercury was played by Ayako Morino, Yukiko Miyagawa, Hisano Akamine, Mariya Izawa, Chieco Kawabe, and Manami Wakayama. She had one image song, "Drive Me The Mercury." Costume Sailor Mercury's sailor fuku in the musicals had two major versions. Sailor Mercury In the first version, Sailor Mercury's bows, glove fittings, choker, and sleeves were blue, while her skirt and collar were navy blue. Later versions of the costume had a blue top skirt layer, collar, and boots, while her bows, glove fittings, and sleeves were light blue. The brooch attached to the front bow was a golden circle with blue gems. She also had a circle in the center of her choker and dangling circle earrings. All of the trim on her costume, as well as the stripes on her collar, was gold. This version was never shown after Sailor Moon S - Henshin - Super Senshi e no Michi (Kaiteiban). Super Sailor Mercury The second version was essentially faithful to her "Super" version in the manga and anime. At first her front bow, back bow, and glove fittings were light blue, and her collar, boots, and choker were cerulean. Her skirt had two layers, the top one cerulean and the bottom one light blue. Later versions of the costume changed her glove fittings to cerulean instead of light blue. Her choker ornament was a golden star with an cerulean circle and the Mercury symbol in the center. The brooch on her front bow was a heart-shaped blue gem ringed in gold. Her earrings were three large blue studs. Mythology Sailor Mercury bore the name of the innermost planet of the Solar System, which in turn is named after the Roman messenger god Mercury. The planet's Japanese name is "Suisei" (水星; lit. "Water Star"). In Western astrology, Mercury is the "ruler" over Ami's birth sign, Virgo. Also, Sailor Mercury used a lyre for her Aqua Rhapsody attack; Greek mythology attributes the invention of this instrument to the god Hermes (the Greek equivalent of Mercury). Trivia *In Japan, Sailor Mercury was the most popular Sailor Senshi, although she sometimes dropped to second place in favor of Sailor Chibi Moon among younger viewers. This was mainly due to the fact that Ami's docile and studious personality made her a role model for Japanese children. On the other hand, her lack of an offensive ability during the whole first season had earned her some scorn for being weak (she was the only one to be actually killed by the DD Girls; the rest were killed using kamikaze attacks). *An early costume design in the Materials Collection book had long sleeves and pink ribbons in addition to the primary blue and white. *In the live-action series, as well as in the "Ami's First Love" special, she was sometimes shown wearing glasses. She said she did not need them though, and only wore them for the looks. *Sailor Mercury received the most weapons in the live-action series: the Water Sword, the Mercury Sword, and while she was Dark Mercury, the Dark Sword.